Actually, I shouldn’t be that surprised. If a park sim based on Tim Burton’s 1996 B-movie homage Mars Attacks wasn’t on my bingo card, it’s because I recently threw it away and replaced it with a bobble head that simply nods in amusement at whatever video games decide to do. next. And conceptually, Jurassic World Evolution with captive humans instead of dinosaurs is not not a potential winner, right? Still, I was a little stunned to hear that Mars Attracts will be the film’s first licensed game, sometime next year. But then I realized I’d never thought to check it before, which might go some way to explaining its lack. Do you think they did the pun and worked backwards from there? Respectable, honestly.
You’ll notice how the trailer jumps between historical periods. You have a cowboy who is desperate during an amusement park ride. An old Roman guy who is desperate during a ride. An astronaut in despair during a ride. A lot of despair during rides is the theme here. The reason for all this despondency is that you are actually traveling through time, like the Martians, trying to get at people from different time periods. Then you display them in “highly adaptable habitats” that mimic their natural environment. Once they’re good and docile, you can get started and discover new ways to entertain your guests. Apparently they can try to make a runner if you examine them too much. Speaking as a human being, this is true.
As far as attractions go, things look a lot more like a Theme Park than a Planet Coaster, with some fixed entertainment options rather than customizable tracks. I guess Theme Park had customizable songs too. My main memory of that is the swampy crappers, because my brain apparently thinks that books I read last year are less important to remember than a poop joke from a 30 year old game. Cheers for that, skullmeat! Your skull meat in Mars Attracts will therefore mainly be used to sort electricity networks, keep your guests happy and stay informed about escaped people and environmental hazards.
It is from the Irish studio Outlier, who previously made this album This means warping – a lively mix of FTL and Overcooked. I’m always in favor of a good park simulation, and certainly a good park simulation, so I’m curious to see how this turns out.